How to use appropriate in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, adjective

Appropriate means to take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right. Example: “Let no man appropriate the use of a common benefit.”

Examples of appropriate by meaning

verbTo take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right.

Let no man appropriate the use of a common benefit.
By appropriating harm in this way, the order-maintenance approach to criminal justice has disarmed the traditional progressive 1960s response of "no harm."2001, Bernard E. Harcourt, Illusion of Order

verbTo set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, especially in exclusion of all others; with to or for.

A spot of ground is appropriated for a garden.
to appropriate money for the increase of the navy

verbTo make suitable to; to suit.

Picnickers appropriate the lawn and declare for the proletariat .1927, Plain Talk, page 94

adjectiveSuitable or fit; proper; felicitous.

The headmaster wondered what an appropriate measure would be to make the pupil behave better.
But some discussion of the complex relationship between “allohistory” and sf is appropriate here, as the genres overlap in certain ways.2011 February 1, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction, Wesleyan University Press, →ISBN, pages 102–103

adjectiveSuitable to the social situation or to social respect or social discreetness; socially correct; socially discreet...

I don't think it was appropriate for the cashier to tell me out loud in front of all those people at the checkout that my hairpiece looked like it was falling out of place.
While it is not considered appropriate for a professor to date his student, there is no such concern once the semester has ended.
With such focus from within the footballing community this week on Remembrance Sunday, there was something appropriate about Colchester being the venue for last night’s game.2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report”, in Telegraph

adjectiveOf an action or thing: morally good; positive.

Rescuing animals is an appropriate thing to do.

More sentences with appropriate

Regular chores can be appropriate for children, given age-appropriate limits on difficulty level and time on task.From the entry child
She wore a racy dress that was just barely appropriate for the occasion.From the entry racy
I've never met his mother, so I'm grasping at straws for an appropriate gift for her.From the entry grasp at straws
Don't forget to pack weather items appropriate for the climate: sunscreen, rain gear, and so forth.From the entry and so forth
To prepare for leading a devotional, select a theme appropriate to the occasion.From the entry devotional
Once a business gets off the ground, a different management style may become appropriate.From the entry off the ground
Submit all copy to the appropriate editor.From the entry copy
For many 'home' is an affectation when used anywhere that 'house' would be appropriate, as in 'Home for Sale'.From the entry anywhere
Would male strippers be appropriate for the divorce shower?From the entry shower
The code calculates the appropriate value at each iteration.From the entry iteration
A low gear is appropriate when climbing a steep hill.From the entry low gear
The active periphrastic conjugation in Latin is formed by using the future active participle and the appropriate form of "esse".From the entry periphrastic conjugation
There is an appropriate increase in intrarectal pressure.From the entry intrarectal
The central theme of low-till agriculture is that the plough is not always necessary and that it should be used only when truly appropriate.From the entry plough
A file descriptor can be considered a capability that can only be leveraged using the appropriate system calls, passing it as an argument.From the entry capability
Ask her to deport all illegals living in this town without a green card or the appropriate documents that prove their naturalized citizenship.From the entry deport
Lenders often assess the risk profile of borrowers to determine the appropriate level of overcollateralization needed.2024 January 28, Michael Taylor, “What Is Overcollateralized and How Does It Work?”, in Shifting Shares. From the entry overcollateralization
Appropriate placement of stylesheets and JavaScripts improves the perceived page load times and prevents browsers getting blocked.2019, Shailesh Kumar Shivakumar, Sourabhh Sethii, Building Digital Experience Platforms: A Guide to Developing Next-Generation Enterprise…. From the entry javascript
Avoid applying a steristrip or glue to a wound if you have not had the appropriate training.2019, Sam Willis, Roger Dalrymple, Fundamentals of Paramedic Practice: A Systems Approach, page 182. From the entry steristrip
Then again, it might be appropriate after she 'womansplained' to him about the science behind magnets.2018 July 4, James Draper, “Love Island fans can't believe Wes Nelson was primary school age in 2009”, in Mirror. From the entry womansplain
The TAC is not keen on non-Aboriginal users appropriating the language.2018 March 30, John Hartley, “Creative economy: industry versus language?”, in Abbe E. L. Brown, Charlotte Waelde, editors, Research…. From the entry palawa kani
In general the softer, mousse-like texture of French boudins is the more appropriate in this instance.2017, Jonathan Meades, The Plagiarist in the Kitchen: A Lifetime's Culinary Thefts, Unbound Publishing, →ISBN. From the entry boudin
Anything but convincing or even really serviceable, its Muppetlike appearance was appropriate to this film.2017 January 12, Bill Warren, Keep Watching the Skies!, American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, The 21st Century Edition…. From the entry Muppetlike
Sidesaddle riding habits were prestigious tailored sportswear appropriate for the equestrian pursuits of the truly wealthy.2015, Alison Matthews David, Fashion Victims: The Damages of Dress Past and Present, →ISBN, page 34. From the entry habit
Our study demonstrates that the exoproteome is an appropriate indicator of adaptive response of T.2015 August 20, “Salt Stress Induced Changes in the Exoproteome of the Halotolerant Bacterium Tistlia consotensis Deciphered by…. From the entry exoproteome
I figure NeurodiversiME partly works by scraping and sculpting content, so a few micro-plagiarisms are appropriate.2015 September 2, Jo Lindsay Walton, “The Internet of Oh and One More Things”, in Blogspot, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2024. From the entry whevs
We also need to always model appropriate behaviour, as we are a constant source of new information.2014, Phoeve Hutchison, Are You Listening? Life Is Talking to You!, page 145. From the entry sponge
As such, a more appropriate comparator would be the case of Watts v.2014 May 20, European Court of Human Rights, McDonald v. The United Kingdom, number 4241/12, marginal 48. From the entry comparator
End-to-end QoS along with appropriate bandwidth provisioning specifically for Intra-Cluster Communication Signaling (ICCS) is required.2014, Akhil Behl, CCIE Collaboration Quick Reference, →ISBN. From the entry undersubscription

Meaning of appropriate

verb To take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right.
verb To set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, especially in exclusion of all others; with to or for.
verb To annex (for example a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property).

Full definition of appropriate

Questions about appropriate in a sentence

How do you use appropriate in a sentence?: Appropriate is used as a verb and adjective. For example: “Let no man appropriate the use of a common benefit.”
What is a short sentence with appropriate?: “Submit all copy to the appropriate editor.”
What does appropriate mean?: Appropriate means to take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right.

Adapted from Wiktionary: appropriate (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use appropriate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/appropriate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.